Russia Considers Banning Beauty and the Beast Over ‘Gay Moment’

Russian officials are coming under pressure to check if Disney’s new film Beauty and the Beast breaches the country’s law against “gay propaganda”.

One MP described it as “shameless propaganda of sin” and Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said action would be taken after the checks.

Under Russia’s 2013 legislation that bans “homosexual propaganda” and has angered human rights activists and the international gay community, the Rusian law suggests that homosexuality – described as “non-traditional sexual relations” – is alien to life in Russia.

It involves LeFou, who is a sidekick of the film’s main antagonist Gaston.

LeFou, played by US actor Josh Gad, tries to come to terms with feelings for Gaston that swing between lust and admiration, as a side-plot to the main story.

The movie is due to be released in Russia on 16 March.

But Vitaly Milonov, an MP of the governing United Russia party, urged the culture minister to hold a screening of the film before it is released to see if it complies with the law and to “take measures to totally ban” it if he found “elements of propaganda of homosexuality”.

His colleague Alexander Sholokhov said that if the scenes violated the law, the film should be banned from cinemas.

“As soon as we get a copy of the film with relevant paperwork for distribution, we will consider it according to the law,” Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said.

Will Kohler is one of America's best known LGBT historians, He is also a a accredited journalist and the owner of Back2Stonewall.com.
A longtime gay activist Will fought on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic with ACT-UP and continues fighting today for LGBT acceptance and full equality.
Will’s work has been referenced on such notable media venues as BBC News, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The Daily Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, and Raw Story.
Back2Stonewall has been recently added to the Library of Congress' LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive.
Mr. Kohler is available for comment, interviews and lectures on LGBT History.
Contact: Will@Back2Stonewall.com

1 thought on “Russia Considers Banning Beauty and the Beast Over ‘Gay Moment’”

There is something seriously flawed in the Russian gene pool, that allows them to accept repression so easily. These people actively seek out a segment of their society . In order to blame them for the ill of that society as a whole.Vladimir Putin after all is just another Josef Stalin in Armani. Bring on the Purge’s.